TV doctor and peer Lord Robert Winston has backed calls for hospitals to offer free parking for patients and their visitors.

The Labour peer said: “I am in favour of free parking for patients and families”

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The presenter of The Human Body and Making Babies revealed he had refused to pay hospital parking fines in the past and blamed the entire system on Tory underfunding of the NHS.

His comments come after it emerged hospitals made £174m in parking charges this year. Hourly charges can reach up to £4, with only a portion going to healthcare as the car parks are run by for-profit firms.

Contributions from readers

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11:12 on 1st January 2018

I've been campaigning to get these Parasitic commercial car parking companies out of our NHS for over 30 year's. It may require the removal of their hospital executives and good riddance. Their introduction by the Thatcher government was as a result of lobbying for a 'level'playing field from the commercials.
I understand that some hospitals get absolutely no returns off the massive profits while others get a token ammount, less than 1% .
Unlike railway franchisee that's probably making just as much from the car park than the trains.